Once Boston Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts polished the opening pitch of Minnesota Twins starter Tyler Duffey's (L, 5-7) into the Green Monster seats for his 19th home run of the season, the tone of the night had already been established. 

One night after torching the San Francisco Giants for 11 runs in a victory, the Red Sox offense ran on jet fuel once again on Thursday, hammering three home runs en route to a 13-2 win over the scuffling Twins in front of a sweltering crowd at the friendly confines of Fenway Park

Top of Red Sox order enjoys glamorous night

The top of the Red Sox order simply hammered the cover off of the baseball against a Minnesota pitching staff which appeared listless throughout the evening. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia paced Boston with an impeccable 5-for-5, three-run, one-RBI outing. Meanwhile, while Betts went 3-for-5 with three runs and two RBI, shortstop Xander Bogaerts fared 3-for-4 with three runs and two RBI. Designated hitter David Ortiz continued his astounding campaign by crushing a towering two-run home run in the eighth inning to make way for a 3-for-5, four-RBI showing. 

Unlike Wednesday's lengthy debacle, Boston received a brilliant pitching outing to add to the offensive outburst. All-Star Steven Wright (W, 12-5) performed as such, fooling Twins batters throughout his eight stellar innings for nine strikeouts while yielding just a pair of runs (one earned) on four hits and a walk. Duffey's performance was a far cry from that of Wright, as he lasted just 2.1 innings while letting up six runs on nine hits. 

The win was Boston's ninth in their last 10 games as they maintained a 0.5-game advantage on the second-place Baltimore Orioles in the AL East. 

Red Sox pile on early, often in win 

After Betts' game-opening drive, the Red Sox continued to pile on in the first with Pedroia and Bogaerts both reaching on singles to follow it up. Ortiz then scored Pedroia with a perfectly-situated RBI single to deep right, and Bogaerts came around on a double play hit into by first baseman Hanley Ramirez, the hero of Wednesday's win, to push the gap to 3-0. 

The top of the order struck once again in the third inning. Betts and Pedroia began the stanza with consecutive singles, each scoring on a two-RBI wall-ball double by Bogaerts. With one down, center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. laced an RBI double down the first-base line which barely remained in play, upping the lead to 6-0. 

Minnesota plated two runs in the fifth inning off of Wright, with right fielder Max Kepler breaking up 4.1 innings of no-hit ball with a single before scoring on an RBI groundout by left fielder Robbie Grossman. Kepler originally moved to third base following a ground-rule double by designated hitter Kennys Vargas, who came around to score on an error by Wright himself. 

David Ortiz takes in the scene after smoking his 24th home run of the season. | Getty
David Ortiz takes in the scene after smoking his 24th home run of the season. | Getty

However, the damage would be replicated by the Red Sox offense, with Bradley Jr. piping his 15th home run of the season to center with two outs in the bottom of the stanza off of Twins reliever Michael Tonkin to bump the gap back up to 7-2. Boston refused to let up in the later innings, with Ortiz knocking an RBI single to right in the bottom of the seventh after Pedroia led off the inning with a double and Bogaerts reached on an infield single. 

Bradley Jr. then pushed his RBI count on the season to 58 later in the frame, pushing home Bogaerts while grounding into an RBI fielder's choice. The surge continued in the following inning with pitied Minnesota reliever Trevor May, charged with allowing four earned runs in two innings, manning the hill. After left fielder Brock Holt worked a one-out walk, Betts knocked an RBI double to deep center before Pedroia subsequently hammered an RBI double of his own to increase the Boston advantage to 11-2. 

Then, with two down in the inning, Ortiz satisfied the Fenway faithful, ripping an offering from May deep into the right-field bleachers for his 24th home run of the season. The blast traveled 440 feet, Big Papi's second-longest big fly of the season, giving the Red Sox a 13-2 lead that embattled reliever Clay Buchholz would not have an issue preserving in his scoreless ninth inning of work. 

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About the author
Liam OBrien
Just a Boston man who loves sports. Oh, and writing is kind of a priority.